Remnants

So, Andy theorized today that H1N1 is still causing health problems for many people. Me included.

There were those amazing four weeks at the end of December and early January where I felt great. I was running almost every day, and riding my bike fast and hard, skiing, and even working out with this balance ball exercise video I got. Yeah, I admit it. I use a DVD and a balance ball and I love it. And my core is STRONG! Actually, it is a tough, energetic workout for my body and brain and it leaves me breathless, heart pounding, and unable to do every part of it.

Those weeks were great. I was so strong, and I was thinking about the competitions I want to enter in the spring and summer. Bike racing again...what a thought! Now a distant, distant thought.

Now, I can barely walk up the stairs without wheezing. I left school early on Friday because I felt so crummy. My throat is scratchy and my lymph nodes are sore (but less swollen than on Thursday). Is it the kittehs? Is it allergies to all the blooms I see out my window? Or maybe the mold I can smell in parts of my house. Is it remnants of swine flu pushing my body over the edge? It's probably all of those things and more I haven't thought of.

And it sucks.

A Day in the Life...Student Teaching and Learning

Monday- wake up, dread going to my first class. I always leave this one class feeling like crying. My colleagues occasionally come up to me to give me comfort and support for my treatment. It's nice that it's not all in my head.

Then it's our writing workshop, over two hours of writing and studying the craft of teaching literacy.

Last in the day is algebra. I forget what the full title is. The class is intended to prepare us for the reality that we are licensed to teach K-8, and therefore will actually need to know algebra in order to teach it. It's taught by a fabulous math professor who somehow makes it seem interesting and exciting. Seriously! It helps knowing that my fantastic math professor from last term is taking the class too, albeit in a different section. So we can share strategies.

Tuesdays are the really, really long day. I head off (driving) to my student teaching site, check in with my mentor, then head off to a second grade class for observing. The second graders are a breath of fresh air. The whole experience of being in a different room is good for me, and the classroom teacher is talented and worth learning from. In the afternoon, I return to the 5th grade (my primary placement) and we suffer through a couple hours of our literacy block. I say suffer because our structure isn't really working, and I end up spending the majority of my time reminding students of the behavior expectations.

At 3:00, I get in the car and travel about 20 miles on freeways and state highways to my campus. 4:00 finds me ravenous and crammed in a basement room with my cohort and the Dean of the education program, studying classroom management. My classroom needs management, so I'm keen to get everything I can out of the class. Andy, thankfully, has dinner ready for me when I get home at 7:30.

Wednesdays are something of a relief. A 9:00 am start means I don't need to leave my house until 8:00 if I am riding to my carpool. My carpool consists of a couple of other 30+ women, smart, opinionated, and dedicated. Also, married or very partnered. We have a lot in common, and we make the most of our time to gossip and process what's going on in our complicated lives. The first class of the day is training on how to teach English to speakers of other languages; yet another course that I find incredibly valuable. The professor was with us for our Ethics and History class and she inspires me every day. Beth observed that Dr. Exposito's core values are so strong, she can't help but be a fascinating teacher. The afternoon is dedicated to our Reader's workshop; more work on literacy instruction. This class features "book club" time with two of my colleagues, to discuss our readings and response papers. I find myself looking forward to this part of the day; I like talking to these two and I think they have incredibly valuable observations. But the best part about Wednesdays? We are done by 2:45.

Thursdays and Fridays are both spent in my classroom. They have the beautiful bonus of not requiring any real homework to be done, as I do have some planning time during the day and I'm not doing much direct teaching right now. However, my solo-solo and solo teaching, once so far in the future they were impossible to think about, are rapidly approaching.

Solo-solo means I am by myself. Period. My mentor is only welcomed in the room to do some formal observations of me. This is for two weeks. Solo (single) teaching is the other four, wherein I provide all the instruction, planning, etc., but my mentor is in the classroom and can offer assistance. March 29. Here I come.

My, what a busy weekend

Here's what a typical homework weekend looks like.

Reading

• P. 297-361, Comprehensive Classroom Management. As I've said elsewhere, I really value this class so I take my sweet time reading the text. The incredibly useful, yet dense, text.
• Chapters 4-8, A Teacher's Guide to School Law
• Chapters 6-7, Notebook Know-how
• Chapter 7, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
• Two articles (subject of ADD and passive aggressive behavior)
• Chapter 21-Elementary and Middle School Math

Writing

• 4-6 page paper on classroom procedures/creating classroom community
• Response paper (one page) to literacy readings
• GLAD unit development (Colonial America)
• Unit Goals for state-required work sample of Literacy teaching
• Starting the process for planning what I'm going to teach by myself for 6 weeks, including math, literacy, science, and social studies.

Life

• Grocery shopping
• Menu planning
• ordering transcripts from all three universities I've attended
• researching California requirements for teacher license
• Working out (or acupuncture, depending on how I'm feeling)
• Spending time with Andy
• Cleaning some part of the house
• Taking time for myself.

Kiittehs!!!

First things first.

Grad school is HARD. Student teaching is HARD. It's a pretty unpleasant experience all around. I mean that it's hard to take over a class that is completely different than the way I want to teach. I know, deep in my heart, that my classroom won't look, sound, or feel like my student teaching class (called the internship). But I also know that there really isn't much I can do about the choices that are already made. Maybe that's not very clear. Suffice it to say that it's hard to take over someone else's classroom. I'm lucky that someone is willing to let me do it at all. I'm lucky I get such good feedback and guidance in the content areas where I'm weakest- math and science. I'm lucky we have a good, strong, caring relationship. But it's still hard.

Winter is hard too. We went skiing on the three-day weekend, but the snow was crap with extra crap on top. Below 4000 feet was almost snow-free (according to Andy- I bailed and waited for him to come back in the car-that's how bad it was). I also broke a strap on my brand-new boots, and I still haven't solved the problem with the blisters. In fact, the blisters are actually worse than my old boots. The new gear is good though (excepting the blisters). I have a great deal more control and confidence when I can actually use my edges. I miss Tahoe snow.

It's been raining a lot. Raining, but fairly warm. I saw a camellia in bloom the other day, and cherry blossoms starting to peek out. That means pollen, allergens, and still more mold growing in our house. Our bathroom has a leak (I think-there's a bucket on the floor for the moment), and the whole house feels damp.

My allergies are out of control, and I'm pretty miserable. I think I made a delicious pot of lentils tonight, but since I couldn't taste them, I'm not sure. I burned the tortillas I was reheating because I couldn't smell the smoke. My head is pounding with sinus pressure, and my throat and nose feel raw.

However, all that is nothing-NO THING AT ALL- when compared to the pleasure and belly laughs that have come from fostering two kittehs.

Toby and Bella came to us via a craigslist posting asking for help to foster two cats for six months. That's just about perfect, I thought. So I convinced Andy (easy), made contact, and voila- two very different 6 month old kittens are tearing our house, curtains, sofa, and peace apart. And I love almost every minute of it.

They bring a totally new energy into the house. They are noisy and annoying and needy. When we come home, they follow us from room to room. They sleep in open drawers, under the covers, on top of our feet, on shelves, in the laundry, and just about everywhere else. This is the first time I've lived with kittens since I was about 10 (when I rescued Vinigar, my childhood kitty). They are nuts. And fun as hell. They are good friends too, and when they sleep they cuddle, nuzzle, and groom each other. Bella is the runt, and she's the kind of kitty who will struggle to stay awake when she's sitting on you but just can't quite do it. Toby is about twice her size, and a bully. Toby's social, smart, and likes to sleep under the covers.

They are pure joy.

New Year!

We were lucky enough to be invited to a McMansion in Sun River, OR, (about 20 miles from Bend) for the New Year. My dear friend arranged the whole extravaganza, including a hot tub, room assignments, a spreadsheet for logistics, and dinner/ food arrangements. We were the surprise guests. That worked out, mostly.

When we arrived on Wednesday night, it was almost midnight. We immediately got into the hot tub, and stayed there, catching up with my friend and his Boyfriend for much of the night. I'd barely spoken to the Boyfriend, so this was especially lovely.

On December 31, we woke late, lazed around, and eventually got ourselves out the door with our cross country ski gear. I had just bought new boots and bindings, and there was a good bit of snow on the miles and miles of off-street paths. There were also golf courses to ski through, and a distant XC ski trail. Here we are. Unfortunately, the snow turned to rain and I was sliding on the tiniest layer of sludge over the paths. We skied for about 10 miles, got fairly lost, and Andy broke a binding on my grandmother's skis. It's ok. She hasn't used them for several years. We ended up walking back, and then getting lost yet again coming home from the store.

The Boyfriend surprised us with delicious warm food, and we spent more time in the hot tub. For dinner, the boys made pasta (with reasonable success) and we added some gluten-free pasta and sausage. It was delightful.

Shortly after dinner, the Lawyers arrived. I was excited to meet the wife-half of the duo, and happy to see a familiar traveling companion. The other car arrived, and my dear friend Timo and his lady, my new friend Esther, walked in. Then this other girl came in, took one look at the table, and walked downstairs. Into the room we were supposed to share. And never came out.

She didn't come out again until someone got the bus schedule and offered to drive her to Bend to go home. Unbeknownst to me, I was somehow (in her mind) responsible for this. It was pretty awful to see a grown woman be so selfish and inconsiderate of the other guests or her host. I'm glad that the rest of my friends did not see the issue (whatever it was-I'm still not sure, although it probably has to do with the girl in question having many of her ex boyfriends there with their new significant others, and probably less to do with me; I guess that I'm convenient to blame) as being mine.

(We slept on the living room floor that night.)

The rest of us ate two kinds of fondue and drank enough champagne to fill several hot tubs, and soaked, and ate, and laughed, and toasted each other, and generally had a wonderful start to the new year. I have spent previous new year celebrations with some of these folks, and it was great to have that continuity. It was different in that we were ALL coupled up, but although the social dynamic was different, it wasn't bad at all. In fact, I think we are all healthier in so many ways.

The next day, I got to teach my first nordic (XC) ski lesson to the halves of the couples who had never skied, and we all joined up later. I had a blast teaching motivated adults who are athletic, and I am incredibly proud of how well I did. They did great too, but I feel like I created a couple of XC skiers on Friday! I really wanted to do this because their partners are super into XC skiing, and I suspected that the pressure + lack of teaching language would turn the newbies off immediately. Instead, we all had a great time, skied for a good while, and felt really good about the whole thing.

The drive back was uneventful, and that was OK too.

Cleansing finish

I guess I should note somewhere that I am doing my own version of this cleanse-y thing, and I'm skipping what by all accounts is an important step: the Orange Juice day. Except that I really couldn't do an entire day of orange juice. So I'm going directly to veggie broth and later some juice. Tomorrow, since we are skiing, I'm going to make a smoothie (coconut milk, pear or apple, and kale) for the morning, and have hummus, crackers, and lean turkey, along with lots of carrot snacks and dried fruit to eat.

I have no idea how that's going to work with the sheer amount of calories burned while skiing, but I'm willing to bet I need the calories more than I need liquid if I'm doing snowsports.

This is so...interesting. By tomorrow night I plan on eating fairly normally, albeit gluten and sugar-free. (I hope.)

In other news...

I'm doing one of those super detox body cleanses. Yep. The Lemonade Master Cleanse diet. I'm doing a short version of it because I just don't have time or energy to do a lemonade fast for ten days. Nope, that's too much.

It started with a day of just vegetable (apple, carrot, beet, parsley) juice and warm veggie broth. That was tough. Then the first day of the lemonade. It's just fresh lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne, and water. The recipe that I followed was incredibly sweet and too spicy, and made me very grumpy. I was emotional and grumpy and did not want to continue. Luckily, Andy's incredibly supportive, and I stuck with it.

The cleansing comes from two sources: letting your body rest from the work of digestion, and by flushing out your system. The flush is done by drinking an entire nalgene bottle of salt water. I know. It was as awful as it sounds, and it didn't have the desired effect. Totally gross.

Day two was much, much easier. Instead of the salt water, I'm bailing and just drinking senna leaf tea (a mild laxative). I altered the recipe for the lemonade to make it both less spicy and less sweet. I remembered to drink more water. And I was incredibly productive.

Today is Day Three, and I've gotten a lot of work and chores done. I'm vaguely hungry, but it's nothing like I thought it would be. I'm not running or cycling right now, but that's ok.

Tomorrow I get to do the veggie broth and juice again, and eventually some plain crackers! Whoopee!

So why am I bothering to go through all this? Well, after the CT scan (mega radiation) and all the drugs in my body, I felt like I really needed to give it a good cleaning. Add to that the stress that I've been living with for the past 9 months, and I really need to take better care of my body. No more going to bed crying. No more waking up dreading the day.

I also like the idea of eating less gluten and sugar. Now, I eat very little of either, but I could still eat less. And drink less beer. Fewer hamburgers. Not that I eat much crap, though. I read about all the things one should reduce from one's diet (processed foods, white bread, milk, soda) and I think that I don't eat much of any of that. My vice is in homemade cookies in the staff room, instant oatmeal, waffles and applesauce for breakfast, and trader joe's granola bars. (I could probably live for a few days at least on those.)

Hopefully, this experience will give me better health as well as more reason to avoid the foods that aren't good and find alternatives to granola bars for my morning snack. Who knows?

Did I mention I get broth tomorrow? Hooray!